International Blasphemy Rights Day 2014

September 29, 2014

Tuesday, September 30, is International Blasphemy Day Rights Day (IBRD). Moreover, it’s the fifth anniversary of the Center for Inquiry’s launch of IBRD. It is an appropriate time to take stock of the state of freedom of religious belief and expression in the world. Unfortunately, it’s not a terribly encouraging picture.

Too many nations still have laws punishing their citizens for religious dissent, contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as several United Nations covenants and conventions. Roughly fifty persons in various countries, all with Muslim majorities, are currently in prison as a result of blasphemy convictions, with a significant percentage on death row. Some of the punishments imposed on offenders are truly barbaric, such as the 1,000 lashes to which Saudi dissenter Raif Badawi has been sentenced. (The flogging of Badawi is scheduled to begin within the next few weeks.)

These harsh punishments can be presumed to have their intended effect: they intimidate religious minorities into keeping silent, embolden their persecutors, and help immunize majoritarian religious views from criticism.

Of course, the nations that have laws on the books criminalizing religious dissent do not typically frame the laws in those terms. They do not expressly prohibit religious dissent. Instead, they prohibit conduct showing “contempt” for religious belief or language “defaming” religion. But framing laws in terms of protecting religious sensibilities cannot obscure the fact that the laws suppress expression of views contrary to majoritarian religious beliefs. Moreover, the purported rationale for these laws is morally unsupportable: There is no right to have one’s religious beliefs—or political or philosophical beliefs—protected from questioning or criticism, no matter how deeply offended one may be by such questioning or criticism.

It’s a profound irony that the prophets who founded the three major monotheistic religions all complained bitterly about the persecution they and their followers faced, at least if we are to believe the statements attributed to them. It’s an irony because as soon as these religions gained controlled of a territory they immediately undertook to relentlessly persecute those of different faiths. If the Hebrew Bible is to be credited, the ancient Israelites make the fanatics of ISIS look like UN peacekeepers.

A principled stand against religious persecution—that is, a stand which objects to persecution of anyone, including those who don’t share one’s beliefs—was a long time coming in human history. Fortunately, in most developed nations, most legal restrictions on criticism of religion have been removed. However, even in some developed nations there have been attempts to immunize beliefs from criticism on the ground that such criticism constitutes “hate speech.”

Protecting the fundamental human right to free expression, including the right to express one’s views on religious issues, is an ongoing struggle. Whether this fundamental right will ever gain truly universal recognition remains an open question. What is not in doubt is that if we who support free expression become apathetic about this struggle, the right to free expression will erode. Fanatics never lack for motivation.

Happy International Blasphemy Rights Day. And, by the way, #FreeRaifBadawi.

Comments:

#1 H (Guest) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 at 10:50am

Ron:

Is International Blasphemy Rights Day only restricted to bashing religion? Please clarify for us if it is permissive also to blaspheme secular ideologies of the leftist, post-modern kind. For example, is it permissible to criticize modern feminism, pro-choice arguments, anti-intellectualism (say anti-evolutionary psychology stance of many atheists/skeptics), post-modernism which reject all forms of arguments based on nature, but reduces everything to nurture, and other secular woo?

Also, please clarify for us if there are other secular sacred cows which one must respect. For example, anti-liberatianism is a rather chic position to have in the secular community, and people are routinely. So, would you host on your website, say cartoons which made fun of some of the hipster, leftist and neo-Marxist atheist, skeptic thought “leaders”?

What is your stance of extensive censoring of criticism of secular sacred cows which happens on prominent blog networks, vilification of people based on political views, etc?

And yes, lets #FreeRaifBadawi

#2 Daniel Poissant (Guest) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 at 5:50pm

@ 1 If you can show me a place where you could jailed or executed for to simple act of expressing the views you have stated like you can be jailed in Russia for offending religious sensibilities or support for the LGBT or jailed or executed or lynched like in many muslim country then I promise I will take a stand with you to have these laws abrogated.

#3 Barry (Guest) on Thursday October 02, 2014 at 5:52am

Commenter 1. “H”

“Is International Blasphemy Rights Day only restricted to bashing religion?”

This day clearly bashes blasphemy laws - that is the only “restriction”. The fact that these laws are ALWAYS the product of a dominant religious group attempting to silence dissent and criticism then this inevitably leads to religious bigots getting “Bashed”. Do you at least understand that logic?

This day isn’t a “let’s criticize everyone we disagree with” free for all, which you seem to suggest. No ideas, from what ever source should be free from criticism. No one has the right to go through life expecting the law to protect their sensitivities from “offense”. This day makes clear this point with regard to blasphemy - the victimless crime.

Your bleats of “censorship” are a poor cover for the very thing that blasphemy day is attempting to highlight - no one should be silenced because of their views…even you. But that doesn’t mean you can give those views without being criticized yourself. And, I have to say, you offer a feature-rich target.

Keep up the good work Ron.

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Ron Lindsay is senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry, having previously served as president and CEO from 2008 to 2016. Prior to joining CFI, he was in private legal practice in Washington, D.C. for twenty-six years. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown University and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. Among other works, he is the author of Future Bioethics: Overcoming Taboos, Myths, and Dogmas (Prometheus 2008), the entry on “Euthanasia” for the International Encyclopedia of Ethics (Wiley Blackwell 2013), and The Necessity of Secularism: Why God Can’t Tell Us What To Do (Pitchstone Publishing 2014).